


Morning Has Broken

by arabmorgan



Series: The Original High [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama, Established Relationship, M/M, Post-Thor: The Dark World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-17
Updated: 2016-11-17
Packaged: 2018-08-31 12:52:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8579311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arabmorgan/pseuds/arabmorgan
Summary: Breaking the news that he's dating a once-villainous Norse god to the team proves to be tougher than expected, but some of it is Loki's fault too. Seriously.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Firstly, this is a direct sequel to Heat of the Night. You can probably read this as a standalone without being completely lost, although you might miss a few references!
> 
> Second thing is that events will still occur as usual here, except the timeline is slightly... _stretched_. The Dark World takes place two years after The Avengers, and this takes place roughly two years after The Dark World, which pushes The Winter Soldier back a bit, and all that. Which honestly is not really relevant, but the fact that four years has passed since New York might conceivably explain why this is the 'verse where everyone is apparently Really Chill about everything.
> 
> Also, it's kind of funny that Heat of the Night was supposed to give me license to write a boatload of smut, but so far zero smut has been written in continuation. Oh well.

To Tony’s credit, he tried. He really did.

Somehow, he made it through breakfast with the right number of smart quips, and managed to avoid getting called out for being suspiciously shifty, even though he was suddenly exquisitely aware of every nervous twitch his traitorous body was giving.

He actually got as far as emptying his plate, clearing his throat and announcing out of nowhere, “So I’m kind of seeing this guy now,” before chickening out and deflecting with grim determination every expression of interest from the other Avengers.

He pushed his chair back from the table, slightly wide-eyed and already regretting everything, because _Loki how the hell did you talk me into this_. “I’ll introduce you guys soon, I swear, so – uh, just a heads-up. Yeah.”

And then he beat a hasty retreat, but not before he heard Natasha’s response of, “Take your time, Stark,” which he obsessively dissected on his way down to his workshop.

Amused, that was for sure, perhaps even warm. But not particularly sharp or calculating, which was a relief – and he definitely prided himself on having a clue when it came to _that_ woman, especially after the whole Natalie Rushman fiasco.

He could already anticipate Loki's very familiar sigh when he related exactly what had transpired, but at least he had managed to broach the topic. That was _something_ , at least, and it had only taken him a week after all.

He tinkered the rest of the day away, save for an hour or so where Steve dragged him upstairs, ostensibly to question him about the existence of hologram technology but really just to give Bruce the chance to force a sandwich down Tony's throat. Very tactfully, they made no mention of his morning babble, although Steve in particular seemed to be watching him rather expectantly.

Swallowing the last morsel, he made his escape, all too happy to lose himself in his work the way he always did, when there were things weighing on his mind that he would _really rather not think about._

In between setting down one tool and picking up another, a strong arm suddenly looped about his middle, a lean chest pressing up to his back and nose brushing against his hairline.

Tony grinned, wondering how long Loki had been waiting for a safe moment to grab hold of him. He tilted his head back, his mouth finding the god’s for a quick kiss. (Immediately, the music quietened, because apparently JARVIS felt like he was in charge of the soundtrack to Tony's life – which he kind of was, but whatever.)

"Hey you." His tone was light, affectionate. "What's our plan for tonight?"

There was a pause before Loki answered – a pause in which Tony suspected the god was sniffing his hair, which was, frankly, rather terrible to think about considering he had been sweating and tinkering all day.

"Risk."

Tony chuckled. "I could totally have guessed that," he teased, making Loki's eyes flash with something like exasperation. "Told the team I'm seeing someone, by the way. Just, uh, haven't mentioned who it is yet."

“Should I congratulate you?” Loki said dryly.

Tony sniffed, beginning to put some of the more destructive bits littering his workshop away, out of reach of any curious bots. “I’m sure they’ll be okay with it. I mean, you’ve basically dropped off the grid and I think they’ll just be happy to know where you are. And it’s not like they’re in charge of my relationships – they can’t stop us from doing whatever we’re doing.”

Too bad he couldn’t convince himself just by speaking out loud.

“Hm. Indeed.” Loki sounded amused, as always. “I shall await your presence upstairs then.”

Tony snorted. “ _Yes_ , your highness,” he muttered to himself, even as the god vanished.

He spent a few more minutes tidying up rather half-heartedly, before calling, “JARVIS, lights,” and leaving the darkened workshop, although not before saying, “Night, guys.” Dum-E’s whir in response made him smile, and he was still smiling when the elevator stopped at a floor that was not his and Natasha walked in.

“You’re up late,” he blurted, surprised. Not that he was particularly aware of what time it was, but he supposed it was some ungodly hour of the early morning.

Natasha raised a brow. “So are you.” She paused, not even bothering to hide the fact that she was, for lack of a better word, _scrutinising_ him. “Somebody waiting for you?”

He straightened, his shit-eating grin coming back into play. “Who _isn’t_ waiting for Tony Stark?”

The assassin only fixed him with a very unimpressed stare, the kind that distinctly said, _I already know all your secrets, so you might as well spill now before things get worse for you_.

“I,” Tony started, just as the elevator came to a smooth stop, “think this is your floor.” He smiled at her, albeit not insincerely.

Natasha sighed. “Goodnight, Tony.”

“When’s Barton coming back?” he said suddenly, and really, where had that come from? _Brain, please take control of your mouth._

“Sometime next week, most likely.” Natasha’s head cocked just that slightest bit, and a cold wash of trepidation slithered down Tony’s spine. He didn’t like that look, not one bit.

“Awesome. Looking forward to seeing that birdbrain again. Night.”

The elevator doors simply couldn’t close fast enough.

But at least now he knew – he should probably get the news out before next week rolled around. Either the team would defend him from Clint’s outrage or the screaming matches would already be over before the archer returned.

Stepping out into his penthouse, all the residual tension lingering in his muscles faded away at the sight of Loki seated cross-legged on the floor, counting out little Roman numerical armies with an expression of utmost seriousness on his face.

“You seriously don’t know how _adorable_ you look doing that,” he announced, taking a seat across from the god.

“Adorable,” Loki repeated with a curl of his lip, looking thoroughly disapproving at the thought. “I think not.”

“I think _yes_ ,” Tony countered, but he kept the fact that he found the god’s responding scowl just as adorable to himself.

They sank into a companionable silence, and an hour passed before he said thoughtfully, “What if I just announce it during a battle, like _oh hey, speaking of magic, you know that dude I’m dating,_ just like that, you know?”

Loki’s brows raised in a way that reminded Tony uncomfortably of Natasha. “I’m sure that would not be in the _least_ distracting to your teammates.”

“Well, it’s not like _you’re_ being very helpful,” he grumbled.

Loki’s eyes narrowed, and his next toss of the dice was just a little too hard to be passed off as casual.

Tony eyed the god cautiously; he hadn’t set Loki’s fuse off in a while now, especially not for such a trivial matter, and it was strange to see those dark brows drawn together in such obvious vexation.

“What?” he asked, striving to remain relaxed, suddenly wishing that Loki was within arm’s reach. It always made him feel better to be in contact with the god in some way, and maybe it wasn’t too much to hope that it had a calming effect on Loki as well.

“It is nothing.” The god refused to look back up at him, his stare fixed on the board as if a mountain of gold was liable to appear on it at any moment.

“No, come on,” Tony coaxed, tempted to stand and move to Loki’s side anyway. “Talking about our problems is supposed to be a good thing, apparently.”

“Why?”

Tony frowned. “Er, no idea. I never really paid attention to –“

“ _Why_ ,” Loki interrupted in a low voice, shaky with a barely suppressed emotion, “do you insist on this farce when you know that the longer you maintain it, the worse the backlash will be? What does this lie achieve? _Nothing_ , I tell you, nothing but pain and _damnation_ on everyone involved!” His voice was a loud snarl by the time he was finished, and Loki himself looked rather shocked at his own outburst.

Tony just stared, taken aback. He had realised that the whole ‘secret affair’ issue had been rubbing Loki the wrong way for a while, but this – well, it sounded like a bit of an over-reaction, if he was being honest.

It was probably the wrong time to remind Loki that he was known as the god of lies around here.

“I _said_ I was going to tell them,” he muttered mutinously, feeling miffed, like he had been told off for something he hadn’t done.

Loki’s posture was stiff, and he didn’t even acknowledge Tony’s words in the slightest. Annoyed, the billionaire took hold of the dice and tossed them right at the god’s chest, where they bounced off and scattered a number of troops placed on Greenland.

Loki’s head snapped up, and Tony met his glare without even the slightest bit of fear. “It’s hard, okay? It’s hard because this is _important_ to me,” he said sharply. “This could mess us up, do you even _realise_ that? If I didn’t care, I could just shout it out to the world and break up with you the moment anyone disapproved. So I’m sorry if I just want to enjoy a few more non-disastrous days with you.”

“If it was so important, there should never have been the need for a lie in the first place.” With a level of care that infuriated Tony, Loki meticulously began to rearrange the toppled pieces, placing them back upright.

“That doesn’t even make any _sense_ , and would you just goddamn _stop_ – just _look at me_!” Before he could think too hard about it, Tony grabbed the corner of the board and flipped it up, sending the little game pieces flying across the floor, some landing in the folds of Loki’s tunic and tumbling into his lap.

Loki looked too stunned to be furious, something which Tony knew on some level that he should be grateful for.

“Stark,” the god started, but Tony cut him off by standing up abruptly.

“Look, I’m not thrilled about keeping this a secret either, but I was just trying to protect you –”

“ _Protect_ me,” Loki repeated, scorn dripping liberally off every syllable in a way that only served to raise Tony’s hackles even more.

“Protect _us_ ,” he said loudly, aware that he was on the verge of shouting now. “For once, could you just stop making this all about you? Maybe it wasn’t the right thing to do, I admit it, but I did it because you _mean_ something to me, okay? If you don’t like that, if you can’t _handle_ that, then you can leave. It’s fine. I get it.”

He turned, away from the contemptuous disbelief written all over Loki’s face, and immediately panic seized him. He had _not_ just said that. He had _not_ just said that it was _fine_ if Loki left.

There was the quiet rustle of shifting fabric from behind him as Loki stood, and then a soft, stricken-sounding, “Tony…”

“Lokes,” he tried, a last-ditch attempt to save the smoking remains of their previous contentment, but before he could even turn fully, he already knew from the silence that Loki was gone.

“Shit. _Shit_.” He picked up the board and flung it across the room, then kicked out at the remaining pieces littering the ground.

JARVIS was silent, because JARVIS, unlike his completely _stupid_ creator, had something called _common sense_.

“ _Shit_ ,” he repeated.

* * *

The team’s continually sneaky glances towards him for the next two days didn’t make him feel any better. Clearly, they were all waiting for the big reveal, the guy who had finally stolen Iron Man’s heart – except Tony wasn’t sure if there was even anything to reveal anymore.

“We’re on a break, by the way,” he said suddenly one day as he soared beside the Quinjet, on their way back to the Tower. A not-so-tiny, bitter part of him gave him a friendly reminder that if things hadn’t gone so wrong, he could have said _I’m dating Loki, by the way_ instead.

There was complete silence on the comms for a full half minute, and then Steve asked, “Why?”

Tony gave a shrug in the suit, as if anyone else could see him. “He thought I was taking too long to tell you guys. Keeping it a secret was making him uncomfortable.”

“Just because of that?” Bruce sounded tired, but definitely interested.

“Well.” Tony hesitated, the guilt returning full force once more. “I might have told him to get out if he didn’t like how I was handling things. He hasn’t been by since, and I can’t – I mean, it’s just…complicated.”

“I’m sure he knows you didn’t mean it,” Steve said earnestly, in the way only Captain America could without coming off as completely patronising.

Tony groaned. “That’s the thing – I don’t _know_ if he knows I didn’t mean it. He’s kind of, um, sensitive.”

“You could try apologising,” Bruce offered. “You might not feel that it’s your fault, but sometimes someone’s got to make the first move.”

“I _would_ ,” he said slowly, “but he’s a little hard to get in contact with. He’s pretty good at disappearing. I don’t know, I think I really messed up.” And damn if he didn’t feel both relieved and miserable to finally admit that.

“He’ll realise in time that you didn’t keep it a secret to hurt him. He’ll be back,” Natasha said, and Tony tried very hard to put his faith in her matter-of-fact tone. The Black Widow was never wrong.

Fortunately, Loki upheld her flawless track record by showing up the very next day.

In the middle of the afternoon, in fact, when Tony was completely unconscious after going sleepless for the past three days.

Something woke him all the same – perhaps some subtle change to the atmosphere, or a sudden out-of-place whisper in the air. As he struggled to wakefulness, he felt the far side of the bed dip, the covers shifting as the newcomer slid in under them.

Tentatively, Loki (because really, who else could it be? Bruce?) moved closer, his chest just barely grazing Tony’s back. In the end, it was Tony himself, only a quarter of the way awake, who gave a satisfied sigh and pushed back against Loki’s chest, closing what little distance still remained between them.

A soft exhalation ruffled his hair, as if in relief. Warm and secure, he promptly fell asleep once more.

He awoke alone at some point in the early morning, the occurrence barely remembered in the back of his mind, only to be faced with the sight of a Norse god very calmly seated at his kitchen counter the moment he set foot out of his room.

Coming to a screeching halt (in his mind, at least; realistically, a shuffling halt would have been more appropriate), his jaw worked uselessly for about a second before he croaked, "Lokes?"

Loki stood, looking distinctly uncomfortable, clad in thick leather that Tony hadn't seen in what felt like a very long while, his jaw stiff and eyes hard.

Before the god could speak, Tony raised a hand. "Last night, it wasn't a dream, right?"

Loki's gaze flickered guiltily to the side for a moment, lips thinning even further, but honestly, right at that moment, Tony couldn't have cared less about their stupid argument from a thousand years ago. He walked forward, ignoring the subtle widening of Loki's eyes, the uncertain half-step back that the god took, and simply wrapped Loki up in a tight hug.

"I missed you," he sighed, and it only took a heartbeat for Loki’s arms to come up around him, almost suffocating with the force of his grip. "I'm sorry I told you to leave. I didn't mean it, not at all. And I'm sorry for taking so damn long to –"

"No," Loki interrupted sharply, pulling back with a firm hold on Tony's shoulders. "You should never have had to shoulder the weight of my anger, and for that I apologise. In your place, I too would have feared for my safety and the continuance of our liaison." His words smacked of formality, an additional shield thrown up in the face of an expected reprimand.

Instead, a slowly-widening grin began to form on Tony’s face. "Continuance of our liaison," he mimicked, as he pushed his way back into Loki's embrace. The god’s presence had the odd effect of simultaneously exhausting and rejuvenating him, and for now, he was happy to just indulge in some brainless contact.

A few minutes later found them both sprawled out on the couch, Tony’s legs on Loki’s lap as he stared up at the ceiling with narrow-eyed concentration. “So I was thinking,” he said decisively, “we can just go downstairs, wait for everyone else to get their lazy asses out of bed, and just –”

“Stark.” Again, Loki interrupted him, a faint downward tilt to the god’s lips. “You were never the cause of my displeasure. Should you prefer not to –”

“No, no, I _want_ to do this. I mean, it would have been nice if we hadn’t yelled at each other and all –” He shot Loki a rather shame-faced grin. “– but you’re right about the fact that we can’t keep this a secret forever. We’re going to want to reveal it on our own terms since it’s going to happen anyway. I mean, that’s how you handle the media, so…I have a plan.”

Loki cocked his head in that familiar curious way of his, and Tony felt a flood of warmth run through him at that single motion alone. Moving to sit upright, he grabbed one of Loki’s hands in his own, his expression serious.

“Right, we’re probably going to have a few more hours before Cap pops out for his morning run, and who knows if Widow ever sleeps? But I’m pretty sure they’ll all be around for breakfast, so we go downstairs, watch a movie, and just wait for them to come in and find us. And then we explain everything to them. Sound good?”

Loki stared at him like he had just grown another head. “No,” the god said flatly. “Even Thor would have come up with a better plan than that.”

“Ouch, my _heart_!” He put a hand over his chest and faked a dramatic wince. “But just hear me out – if you want to do something, best to do it all at once rather than dragging it out, right? A good, clean amputation. We’ll tell them _everything_ today. Just trust me, I’ve got this.” Tony flashed his most confident smirk, feeling Loki’s fingers tighten minutely around his own hand.

“If you insist,” the god muttered dubiously. “But I would like it known that this is not the way I would have chosen to do it.”

“Well, how _would_ you do it then?” Tony stifled a yawn with the back of his hand, pressing his forehead against Loki’s shoulder.

“I would,” Loki started rather imperiously, before pausing. “I would…have taken more time to come up with an infallible plan.”

“Or in other words, you have _no idea_.” Tony grinned. “Yeah, it’s okay, it’s easier to tell a lie than it is to come clean about it – _but_ we’re going to do just that, so c’mon. I think it’s my turn to pick a movie this time.”

Ignoring the sudden tic in the god’s jaw, Tony pulled at Loki’s arm until he deigned to rise to his feet. For someone who had been pushing very stubbornly for the truth for the past week, Loki seemed suddenly and suspiciously prone to dragging his feet.

“Think you’re going to tell me about this lying hang-up you have going on here?” he wondered out loud as they stepped into the elevator, but he gave Loki’s hand a reassuring squeeze as he said so.

“I…” The god hesitated, hand jerking slightly as if he wanted to pull away. “Perhaps. Soon.”

“Okay, cool.” He wasn’t going to push – not now, not when they were still so raw from the emotions that had been laid bare. Instead, Tony dropped his gaze for a moment, teeth catching on his bottom lip as he thought hard.

“So…look, if things go wrong,” he said carefully, “and by wrong I mean weapons start coming out, I want you to leave. Just _poof_ , okay? I don’t want anyone getting hurt, and you know that I won’t be in any danger from the team. Absolutely no fighting, just promise me that.” He allowed the faintest hint of genuine fear to bleed into his voice, needing Loki’s reassurance before they went and did this completely brainless thing that he had come up with.

Loki turned slightly to stare at Tony for a long moment, his expression clearly unhappy, but finally, he gave a short nod.

“Awesome.” A corner of Tony’s lips curved up in a devil-may-care smirk. “Now let’s go do this.”

* * *

In retrospect, perhaps a movie hadn’t exactly been the greatest choice of interim entertainment, considering their history of defiling couches.

But to be fair, they _had_ been devoid of all contact for three days.

Which just made their inability to keep their hands off each other even more pathetic.

Whatever the case, Tony had Loki pressed down against the cushions even before the end credits started rolling, leathers mysteriously vanished and tunic rucked up to reveal more than a cursory sliver of pale skin.

“ _Mmph_.” Loki let out a grunt that soon devolved into a whine as Tony shifted his weight, accidentally (or not so accidentally, as the case was) pressing his knee between the god’s legs.

“We really shouldn’t have left the penthouse,” Tony groaned, pressing forward to capture Loki’s lips with his once more. Their kisses were deep and hungry, all tongue and fervour, Loki pulling Tony down so that he was no longer supporting himself with his arms but stretched out across the god instead.

Then, quite distinctly, they both heard the very appalled, very accusatory voice of Steve Rogers.

“ _Tony_.”

With impressive agility, the billionaire scrambled upright, twisting around so that he was perched rather ridiculously on Loki’s thighs, a huge, guilty grin frozen on his face.

With Loki’s face now uncovered, Steve looked more ashen than ever – but he seemed mostly confused, muscles tense as his gaze flicked from one guilty face to another, even as his posture settled into a vaguely defensive position.

“…Loki?”

“Yeah, uh.” Tony cleared his throat as the god primly tugged his shirt back into place, green eyes deceitfully innocent. “Remember the elusive boyfriend? Steve, meet Loki; Loki, meet Steve.”

“ _Tony_ ,” Steve repeated, looking thoroughly aggravated as he waved a hand in their direction. “ _Loki_?” The ‘ _really_?’ and ‘ _he’s_ the boyfriend?’ were blatantly implied.

“Hey, lay off the judgmental tone. You’re supposed to be the impartial defender of people here,” Tony said hastily, one hand shifting to settle protectively (if somewhat ineffectively) on Loki’s chest.

“But I am hardly a _person_ , am I?” Loki said smoothly, moving to sit up and shifting Tony off him as he did so.

“Shut up,” Tony hissed, making a frantic flapping gesture with his hand that the god eyed with bemusement.

Steve stared between them for a moment, looking more gobsmacked by the second. “So this is why you haven’t been…around?” he said, his mind clearly cycling through the attacks of the previous months even as he addressed Loki directly for the first time. “How _long_ have you two been…?”

Loki gave a rather thin smile, inclining his head slightly.

“Around seven, eight months?” Tony offered, his belligerent expression completely at odds with the uncertainty lacing his tone. Not that it was particularly noticeable, but he _was_ surrounded by people who knew him fairly well, after all.

“I see.” Although in fact Steve looked rather like he was at a complete loss, and the relief that bloomed on his face at the sight of Natasha entering the room would have been hilarious had that very same occurrence not sent Tony’s heart jackhammering into near-oblivion.

Behind him, he felt Loki stiffen and shift very slightly, enough that the god could leap to his feet and position himself in front of Tony should anything go wrong.

Clearly, all promises to disappear in the event of a potential battle were being blatantly broken.

“Loki’s not a threat,” Steve said promptly, in much the same way he delivered mission reports to Fury, except he then added a somewhat more doubtful, “I don’t think.”

Natasha was clearly surprised – her eyes widened noticeably at the sight of the two figures sitting side-by-side, but Tony had no doubt that she had instantly logged every twitch of their muscles and every projected motion. Certainly, she managed to reach the right conclusion without further prompting.

“No longer on a break?” was the first thing she said, and Tony let out a burst of relieved laughter.

“No, not as of today,” he confirmed, expression relaxing as he allowed himself to cast a quick glance back at Loki. Their eyes met, and for a split second, the sharp deadliness in the god’s glare softened.

“You know Clint won’t be happy,” Natasha pointed out.

Tony grimaced. “Yeah, about that…”

“You wanted us to help you out.” The assassin rolled her eyes in an almost maternal manner.

“What are friends for, right?” He returned her smirk, almost completely relaxed now as he got to his feet.

And then Bruce entered, still tousled and bleary-eyed from sleep. “Hey, what’s going on here?”

He felt more than saw Loki blanch, and stepped backward, closer to the god.

Slowly, like he was being careful not to make any sudden movements, Loki leaned forward, placing his mouth by Tony’s ear. “Stark, your plans are _frightfully_ atrocious.”

Tony’s lips quirked upwards. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he muttered out of the corner of his mouth, watching as Steve and Bruce engaged in a Very Serious Discussion, complete with regular appalled glances over at the two of them.

“Did you never consider the fact that _Doctor Banner_ ,” Loki said slowly, dryly, “could have been the first one to stumble upon us?”

Well, _that_ was a fair concern. Tony grimaced.

“I’m pretty sure that I can prove to you statistically that Bruce is almost never the first one out of his room,” he said weakly. “The odds were very much in our favour.”

“Ridiculous,” Loki snorted, and Tony tilted his head back for a kiss just to avoid another lecture about poorly thought-out plans and jumping recklessly into danger.

“Shall we have breakfast, gentlemen?” Natasha said quite suddenly, and the two of them immediately broke apart.

“Finally! I’m _starving_ ,” Tony declared cheerfully.

“Only because you’ve been moping about and refusing to care for your own wellbeing for the past three days,” Bruce said with a good-natured smile, although the look he sent Loki’s way was equally wary on both their parts.

Tony cleared his throat loudly, but Loki only pressed his lips lightly to the inventor’s temple in response, an expression that might have been guilt flashing across his face.

Tony caught Steve looking at them askance, and threw a careless wink his way as they joined the others at the table for a good old-fashioned family breakfast.

It went surprisingly well, awkward silences and shifty sideways glances notwithstanding. It helped that Loki too seemed to be on his best behaviour, accepting Steve’s cautious overtures of conversation with good grace.

Unexpectedly, it was Bruce who remained subdued throughout the meal, disapproval radiating subtly off him despite his outwardly mild expression.

Tony had the feeling that Loki was diplomatically waiting for him to address the elephant in the room (or was it the Hulk in the room?), but while he might have been willing to parade his new boyfriend – it felt weird to label Loki as something as trivial as a _boyfriend_ , but there they were – around in front of the other Avengers, it seemed he wasn’t quite as ready to accept the criticism that came with it yet.

“So,” he said brightly, abandoning the remnants of his lavishly-buttered toast when he felt his stomach give a nervous little lurch, “how about a game of Monopoly, guys?”

_Excellent deflection, Tony. Absolutely outstanding._

Steve and Bruce stared at him like he had lost his mind.

“It is the first Midgardian game Stark taught me,” Loki offered nonchalantly, even as he deftly stole the toast right off Tony’s plate.

“You’ve been teaching Loki how to play…board games?” Steve looked confused, like something about their relationship wasn’t adding up in his mind. It made Tony grin, because honestly, the guy was too damn naïve sometimes.

“We don’t spend _all_ our time together doing the horizontal tango,” he said wryly. “I’m flattered that you think so though.”

Predictably, Steve coloured, his mouth opening soundlessly before he trailed off into unintelligible muttering.

“Tony,” Bruce started uncertainly, and it was with great effort that Tony held back a huge sigh. He loved Bruce, he really did, but he definitely _didn’t_ love the guy’s _You’ve disappointed me_ face. It was worse than Steve’s, and that was definitely saying something.

But he hoisted a valiant smile to the surface anyway and swivelled his stool around to face Bruce, brows raised expectantly. “Yeah?”

“Have you given _any_ thought to how this is going to work out long-term?” Bruce made a vague gesture in the air. “It’s only been a few years since the Chitauri attack, and the public doesn’t know anything about how _he_ almost died to save Thor. _We_ might have cooled down towards him, but the fact remains that his pranks have been destroying a _lot_ of public property ever since his reappearance on Earth.”

Tony bristled. He’d never cared a jot about what the _public_ thought of his relationships, and he certainly wasn’t about to start now.

“You have your reputation to think about, your company’s reputation, the _Avengers’_ reputations,” Natasha said reasonably, and it was like she had just read his mind considering the ease with which she’d extinguished his growing defensiveness. “You’re never going to be able to walk out publicly together. How long will you be satisfied hiding like this? How long before playing house gets boring and you go stir-crazy from inactivity?”

She turned her level gaze on Loki as she finished, her voice coldly factual rather than condemnatory. The god stared right back, but there was a certain tightness about his eyes that told Tony Natasha had managed to strike a nerve, as she so often did.

“I have pastimes other than creating chaos in your already-disorderly Realm,” Loki sneered, eyes narrowing. Tony immediately spun back around, sandwiching one of the god’s hands between both of his.

“We can release a press statement – say that Loki’s been gone all these months because he decided to join SHIELD and do good. He’s been training with us, doing some team bonding, all that bull. I’ve done it a million times, easy,” he said flatly.

Natasha looked away. “That would require you to inform SHIELD of Loki’s current whereabouts,” she said noncommittally, and it didn’t take a genius to realise that there was another message inserted not-so-subtly between the lines.

Bruce frowned. “Yeah, I’m not sure I like the idea of SHIELD being involved either,” he said. “As much as you like to pretend otherwise, they have clout, and they’ll want to take Loki into custody.”

Looking upset, Steve began to bustle around, collecting dirty plates and bundling them into the dishwasher, turning his back on them pointedly as if the distance would help in collecting his thoughts. Tony wished he could do the same.

He felt strangely emotional all of a sudden. Life had been much simpler when it had just been him, Loki and their limited means of entertainment, but he couldn’t say that it felt _bad_ to have the team clucking worriedly over the state of his relationship.

To think that he had expected Bruce to advocate putting a million miles between himself and Loki. Hs science buddy was so much better than that.

“As a citizen of –” Loki paused abruptly, face going blank for a moment before he brushed past his misstep with false nonchalance. “I am not of Midgard. Surely a case could be made that your rulers hold no sway over me. Just as it is not their place to give Thor orders.”

Tony sighed, already understanding where Bruce and Natasha were coming from. “Logically, that would work, but the human race isn’t exactly known for its _logic_ , and SHIELD isn’t known for playing fair. If they want to lock you up in secret, they’ll find a way. If it were any other agency, I’d take them on, but when it comes to Fury…”

He huffed a sigh, wrinkling his nose in thought.

“A glamour, then,” Loki suggested.

Tony slumped. “As a long-term solution? No way.”

Loki rolled his eyes, his patience clearly at an end. “I assure you that I am hardly liable to go _stir-crazy_ at any point in the near future,” he said, shooting Natasha a dirty look. “If we are _quite_ finished with this discussion…”

Tony’s lips quirked, basking in the fact that he was not, for once, the object of Loki’s annoyance. “Okay, okay,” he said airily, hopping off the stool and pulling the god along behind him. “Monopoly upstairs, team bonding now.”

Surprisingly, the other three trooped after him and Loki without complaint.

Bruce won by a mile, even though JARVIS later coolly informed them that Natasha had cheated no less than half a dozen times.

* * *

If Loki had been happy spending his nights with Tony, the god positively bloomed now that he had almost free reign of the Tower.

He seemed exceptionally taken with Natasha, for some reason, and the two of them were always chattering away in Russian about things that Tony had a feeling he wouldn’t care to know about. If they weren’t talking, they were sparring, with Steve along for the ride more often than not.

Bruce had the least to do with Loki, although Tony chalked that down to the fact that if the god wanted to while his hours away in the lab, he would certainly do it in Tony’s workshop instead of hanging out with Bruce.

It was strange, to suddenly have to share Loki with everyone else, even though the god was hardly his to _share_. He had just never really realised how subdued Loki had been around him, compared to all the tales an occasionally-tipsy Thor would launch into about the trouble the brothers had perpetually been getting into in their younger days.

It was infuriating how _right_ Natasha always was. Loki must have been bored out of his mind with nobody to prank and no havoc to wreak, and yet he had stayed anyway, contenting himself with childish games and primitive technology – for Tony.

It made his chest ache in a way that had nothing to do with his reconstructed sternum.

“Where is Loki now, JARV?” he asked, fingers drumming restlessly along the table top.

“In the gym with Mr. Rogers, Sir,” JARVIS replied helpfully.

They were sparring, of course, with a fierce intensity that sent goosebumps rippling up Tony’s arms. A feral grin lit Loki’s face as he all but tore into Steve, who met him blow for blow with an expression scrunched up in concentration.

It was funny how, once his daggers and magic were taken out of the picture, Loki’s basic fighting style matched Steve’s much more than Natasha’s. He was as nimble-footed and lithe as ever, but the blows he dealt relied more upon brute force than anything else, the result of a childhood spent training alongside Thor, no doubt.

It was completely un-Loki-like, and utterly breath-taking to watch.

“You’ve left yourself open, Captain,” the god called, tone laced with disapproval, as he lunged forward and slammed Steve to the ground. “Again.”

Steve sighed, pushing himself up as Loki got to his feet. “I don’t know why that keeps happening.”

“Poor tutelage,” Loki sniffed, with what Tony felt to be much too judgmental a tone considering Steve hadn’t had the benefit of a royal Asgardian education. “However, I am certain that I shall be able to knock the habit out of you before long.”

“Please try not to knock our favourite Capsicle around _too_ much,” Tony called as he sauntered in.

Loki’s head snapped around, a small smile gracing his lips. “And what are _you_ doing here, Stark? Come to spar?”

Tony shrugged. “Just wanted to see you. Make sure you aren’t about to dump me and run off with this hunk over here.” He tapped a bicep teasingly, making Steve snort and pull away.

“Have fun, you two.” The super soldier smiled at Tony in a way that was all too knowing before grabbing his towel and strolling out of the gym.

Loki’s head tilted to the side as Tony approached, green gaze quietly intimate in a way that he hadn’t realised he had missed, now that game and movie nights were team affairs.

He pressed himself against Loki, chin resting on the god’s shoulder, unmindful of the faint scent of sweat that hung in the air.

“Are you happier?” he asked, locking his arms loosely around Loki’s torso.

“I am happy for you,” the god countered, quite inexplicably. “That the burden of secrecy is no longer on your shoulders.”

Tony’s brows furrowed. “You worry about me too much. I’m a big boy, you know.”

“Hardly,” Loki scoffed, “or has it escaped your notice that you are very much mortal?”

“Oh come _on_ , that has everything to do with you being a worrywart and nothing to do with our secret-keeping,” Tony complained. “Trust me, we mortals are the most aware of our mortality, thank you very much.”

Loki scowled. Tony found it annoyingly attractive.

And then Clint slammed his way into the gym, sooty and vaguely singed, armed with a baseball bat and a dangerously murderous expression.

“Barton –” Tony tried, but Loki abruptly shoved him out of the way and took the first blow stoically, his head twitching an inch to the side.

“ _That_ ,” Clint snapped, “is for the time your giant hawk shat on me and you laughed.”

Tony winced as the bat met the side of Loki’s head once more. “And _that_ is for pushing me off a building.” The spy was breathing hard, looking viciously vindicated. “But you saved my life by pushing me off that building, so I’m counting us even when you take the mind control into account.”

Having said his piece, Clint abruptly turned on his heel and stalked away.

Loki blinked, looking dazed for a moment. “Then I consider my debt paid,” he said at last, his tone as haughty as ever.

“If there’s brain damage, I’m coming after you, Barton!” Tony called.

Clint turned, smirked, and flipped him the finger.

The two of them stared after him silently.

“Well,” Tony said at last. “That probably _couldn’t_ have gone better.”

“Indeed,” Loki agreed ruefully, rubbing absently at the side of his head.


End file.
